Negaunee’s Jason Waterman, left, attempts a layup while defended by Manistique’s Schyler Andersen in the third quarter of their MHSAA Division 3 district tournament game played at Lakeview Memorial Gymnasium in Negaunee on Monday. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

“We needed to play our best ball tonight. We came close, just not close enough.” — Cody Kangas, head coach, Manistique boys basketball

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NEGAUNEE — March is a crazy time for basketball as surprises occur nightly and sometimes a good team’s season ends far sooner than expected.

During the first half on Monday night, it looked as if that could be the case for the Negaunee boys team as Manistique hung tough and the Miners only led by one point at halftime.

However, Negaunee eventually did what it has done all season and that’s find an offensive groove. The Miners broke the game open in the third quarter and advanced to the next round with a 65-45 victory.

Jakson Sager led the Miners with 18 points, while Chas Kumpula had 15 points. Mark Block was the Emeralds’ top scorer with 15.

“You’ve got to give Manistique a ton of credit,” Negaunee head coach Dan Waterman said. “They struggled this year and they could’ve just folded the tent and said it’s not going to go our way and they came out and played with great energy, I thought.

“That’s a credit to them and coach (Cody) Kangas. I was disappointed with our energy level, to be honest with you, and it showed in the first half. They made plays and we didn’t make shots, we didn’t make plays, we didn’t make free throws. We felt very fortunate to be up by one at halftime.”

Kangas was proud of his team’s effort and how it overcame the mistakes that had plagued them earlier in the year against Negaunee.

“We broke the press,” he said. “The last time we were here, we didn’t break the press and they got up big early. But we broke it and got some easy baskets and that gave us some confidence.

“We had the confidence from the second game against them at our place and it was the same concept. We were winning in the third quarter at our place and they kind of just pulled away toward the end, just like tonight.

“We knew we could play with them, but we needed to play our best ball tonight. We came close, just not close enough.”

Negaunee jumped out to a 6-0 lead, but Manistique fought back. A 3-pointer from Sammy Warren got the Emeralds within one at 12-11, then a layup from Schyler Andersen gave them the lead, forcing Waterman to call timeout. After that, the Miners got back-to-back layups from Kumpula and took a 16-15 lead into the second quarter.

The game continued to go back and forth in the next quarter. A layup from Block put the Emeralds up 22-19, but Negaunee tied it on a triple by Drew Lindberg. Later, a Block putback gave Manistique a 29-28 advantage. However, the Miners’ Drew DuShane got a layup in the closing seconds to put Negaunee ahead, but just barely, at the half.

In the third quarter, the Miners found their zone offensively. After Bryce Blixt hit a trey to cut Manistique’s deficit to six at 42-36, Negaunee went on an 8-0 surge, including a nice steal and layup from Jason Waterman to go up by double digits at 50-36. The Miners led 50-38 going into the fourth.

Whatever hopes of an Emeralds’ comeback were dashed early in the fourth as a three-point play from Waterman combined with buckets by DuShane and Sager pushed the Miners’ advantage to 19 points at 57-38.

When asked what the reason was for the second-half dominance, Coach Waterman said it all came down to hard work.

“It was 100 percent effort based,” he said. “Our pressure was a little bit better because we worked a little bit harder. All of sudden, shots start going in and you feel good about those things.

“Hopefully, we got this behind us. It’s March and March does funny things to kids. There’s pressure because it’s win or go home and that’s one of the things you’ve got to deal with when you’re the favorite.

“Hopefully, lesson learned and tomorrow we start with a fresh slate and can get back to business.”

The Miners head to Gwinn to face the Modeltowners at 7 p.m. Wednesday after GHS downed Ishpeming on Monday.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@ miningjournal.net.